Africa 'should act'

2004-11-26 07:58

Nairobi - Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai challenged African countries on Wednesday not to sit back and wait for developed countries to act on climate change.

"Don't feel we can't do things... we can do a lot with little things," she told a United Nations Environmental Programme (Unep) climate change workshop in Nairobi.

It was important that the Kyoto Protocol on climate change was supported by the big powers "who are largely responsible", but African countries should focus on simple, achievable interventions, and on informing people about the changes that climate change would effect in their lives, said Maathai.

Hotter climates, and more variable rainfall was a reality that was going to sink home in the 21st century, the workshop heard. The challenge now was to prepare people for the changes that were to come, and to try to mitigate its impacts through global agreements to reducing the gases causing the problem.

Also speaking at the workshop was Peerke de Bakker, who worked on Unep's carbon credits programme - a system whereby developing countries can get valuable financial and developmental assistance for any project that works to reduce greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere.

It was basically up to the ingenuity of countries to come up with ideas of projects that could fit the requirements of the programme, said Bakker, adding that African countries had almost missed the boat compared with the creative and innovative projects that were coming out of South America.

'Take the message to our people'

Maathai spoke of her tree-planting programme as one "easy and do-able" action that African countries could take to reduce carbon dioxide gas concentrations in the atmosphere.

"We need to take the message to our people. We need to give them simple solutions. The rest of the world is ready to support us", she said, citing her recent Nobel peace prize award as an example that environmental issues, and the role that Africans and women can play in solving them, were recognised as important.

She shunned the idea that African countries were too poor to think about the amount of greenhouse gases their industries produce. She laid responsibility clearly at the feet of government and African leaders.

"There is a big connection between quality of life, the way you manage your environment and the way you govern yourself," she said.

"We make excuses. We say we are poor, not able to impose taxes, or control the emission of greenhouse gases".

Maathai herself moved out of civil society into politics two years ago, when she became part of President Mwai Kibaki's new government.

"Some people preferred it when I was in civil society, because I was making noise all the time," she told the delegates. "Now I can't be making noise, because I would be complaining to myself," she joked.

However she said she was "trying very hard" not to forget the promises she made before the elections, and said she looked forward to the passing of Kenya's new environment bill very soon.

Maathai will travel to Norway to officially receive the Nobel peace Prize. She is the first African woman to be awarded the honour.

- SAPA